Thursday, April 28, 2011

At the launch of Together, Zimbabwean poet, John Eppel, paid tribute to his co-author, the late Julius Chingono, who died while the book was in the last stage of publication.

Eppel, seeing Together for the first time, said the collection of prose and poetry had been co-published by the University of New Orleans Press, the Zimbabwean publisher, amaBooks and of course UKZN Press. Although it had already appeared in the USA, it arrived at Lobby Books hot off the press just that day, much to the manager, Andreas Späth’s relief and the author’s delight.

Eppel read an extract from the introduction by Drew Shaw, a lecturer at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, setting the context of the dual collection: the post-2000 period, a decade of unprecedented decline and hardship in Zimbabwe, which started with the fastracking of the land redistribution that eventually displaced some 900 000 farm workers. This was followed by elections that stirred violent clashes between supporters of Mugabe and the MDC, leading in turn to rampant unemployment, galloping inflation and catastrophic economic collapse, with its attendant erosion of civil, educational and medical infrastructure. Life expectancy for men is now a mere 33 years.

The poetry of Chingono and Eppel does not shy from exploring the indiginities of the “terrible year”, 2008, and Operation Murambatsvina “clear out the filth”, which destroyed people’s homes and livelihoods. Eppel also bravely marches into the taboo of “Gukurahundi Massacre” by the Korean trained Fifth Brigade.

Eppel read Chingono’s ironic poem, “No Funeral”. He said, “It’s almost as if he had some foreknowledge of his death.” He also read his colleague’s amusing “I Lost a Verse”:

I was immersed

in working a poem

when an emergent business man

whom I shared a park bench with

received a call

a business call

I presumed.

He borrowed the pen

I was scribbling with

I lost a verse

he got an order.

Eppel read his own harrowing poem ‘Broke Buttock Blues’, which takes its shape in the jazz idiom:

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Introduction

'amaBooks have published 36 books featuring 240 writers since we started in 2000.
For information about the books and the writers, please visit www.amabooksbyo.com.
Outside of Zimbabwe, most of the books are available through www.africanbookscollective.com or many other online outlets.
'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician', 'This September Sun' and 'Where to Now?' are available in the UK from Parthian Books.
'This September Sun' is available in East Africa through Longhorn Press.
'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician' is published in North America by Ohio University Press, in Nigeria and other West African countries by Kachifo (Farafina) and in Germany by Peter Hammer Verlag.
'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician', 'This September Sun' 'Where to Now' and 'Textures' are available online through jamalon.com.

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Moving On and other Zimbabwean stories

The Goddess of Mtwara

The Daily Assortment of Astonishing Things

Lusaka Punk

The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician

Textures

The Gonjon Pin

Small Friends

Siqondephi Manje

A Memory This Size

African Violet

Available from 'amaBooks in Zimbabwe

Where to Now?

Together

This September Sun

by Bryony Rheam

Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe

Intwasa Poetry

Silent Cry: Echoes of Young Zimbabwe Voices available outside Zimbabwe